Bergen County Police Archives

BERGEN POLICE FORCE SWEARS NEW CHIEF

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, March 15, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | A07

Joel Trella has been sworn as chief of the Bergen County Police Department, where he has spent his entire 23-year law enforcement career. He had been acting chief since October, when Chief Peter Neillands retired.

Eighteen newly promoted officers also were sworn Wednesday.

Trella began his career with the department in 1969, going on to serve in practically every division. As sergeant in charge of training, he developed the program for all K-9 work.

He was a trainer at the Bergen County Police and Fire Academy in Mahwah until 1987, when he became a tour commander. Then, after a stint in charge of police training at the academy, he became a supervisor of investigations with the Special Services Unit, a detective bureau. He held that position until he replaced Neillands.

Trella, 45, was born in Georgia and raised in the City of Passaic. He is a graduate of Garfield High School and Bergen Community College, where he received an associate degree in criminal justice.

Trella, a certified public manager and Navy veteran, has lived in Saddle Brook for the past 20 years. He is married and has two children.

The Bergen County Police Department begun as a one-person motorcycle patrol in 1917 is a 90-member force that handles law-enforcement chores that are too expensive or complicated for local departments to handle alone, as well as security at county-owned buildings and patrol of county highways. The department includes the K-9 unit, a SWAT team, a scuba-diving team, and a narcotics task force.

Promoted to captain were James Byrne, John Schmidig, and Edward Schmalz. New lieutenants are Paul Ortenzio, Victor Cuttitta, Steven Babiak, Paul Kohl, Uwe Malakas, Paul Hammell, Scott Storms, Frank Prelich, Joseph Kersting, James Spahr, Kevin Hartnett, and Marc Fenech. Promoted to sergeant were Stephen Blehl, Jean Rothenberger, and George Gibbs.

Notes: Bergen page

March 15, 1992

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POLICE CHIEFS TO GET NEW LEADER

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, January 17, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B08

The leadership of the Bergen County Police Chiefs Association changes hands Saturday when Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Chief Vincent R. Arfuso is sworn as the group’s new president.

Arfuso, 59, takes over from Waldwick Police Chief Daniel Lupo. He joined the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police in 1960 and became chief 11 years ago.

Arfuso, a lifelong resident of Fort Lee, said he went into law enforcement to contribute to the public and to his community. He said his goal as president of the chiefs association would be to improve the education of law enforcement officials.

Lupo, 60, said he felt he was productive in his year at the helm.

“I relinquish the gavel to a very competent and worthy man,” he said. “My goal was to develop a stronger relationship between police and the community, and I think we accomplished that. We serve the public, and that is something we must never forget.”

The chiefs association acts as liaison to local police departments in the county and deals with other county agencies, including the Police and Fire Academy of Bergen County. The association also raises funds to help families of law enforcement officials.

East Rutherford Police Chief Gilbert Logatto, who is to be sworn as first vice president on Saturday, is in line to become president next year.

At the ceremony, which takes place at 7 p.m. at The Fiesta in Wood-Ridge, Florio is expected to sign a bill that would provide better survivor benefits to spouses of municipal police and firefighters.

Under the bill, passed recently by the Legislature, spouses of firefighters and officers who die in the line of duty would receive 50 percent of their salary at the time of death, an increase from 35 percent.

January 17, 1992

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CRASH FAILS TO SLOW A LEADER ON THE JOB AT FIRE AND POLICE ACADEMY

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, August 2, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

For Ron Calissi, a glimpse of mortality when his van collided with a truck nine months ago did not change his life goals: It taught him to pursue them with more vigor.
“They said I died twice, but I don’t remember,” said the 44-year-old director of the Bergen County Police and Fire Academy.
Known for charismatic and energetic leadership at a post he has been reappointed to annually for the past 12 years, Calissi says he is now even more dedicated to his twin goals: preparing his academy students as well as possible, and continuing on a path of personal and professional growth.
“The rudiments start here,” he said of the academy. “That’s our job, to provide a climate conducive to learning modern approaches to solving problems.”
In firefighting education, for instance, the academy is designing a computerized fire-training burn building that he said would be the most advanced in the world.
Another Calissi goal is to make an associate degree the minimum requirement to become a police officer in Bergen County. The state standard is a high school diploma or GED (general equivalency diploma).
The Leonia Police Department requires a bachelor’s degree for entry-level officers, the only one in the county with such a standard.
Calissi is trying to create an environment to make the associate-degree goal a reality. Under an agreement with Ramapo College and Bergen Community College that would go into effect this fall or spring, Bergen County Police and Fire Academy students would be encouraged to take courses toward an associate degree in social science and bachelor’s degree in government, with a minor concentration in sociology.
“This goes to the mission of the academy, which is to professionalize the public-safety community through the offering of higher-education programs that are college-accredited, thereby indirectly raising the standards to the level they should be at,” Calissi said.
People in law enforcement credit Calissi with invigorating a moribund Bergen County Police and Fire Academy when he took over as director 12 years ago. Student enrollment rose from 2,000 then to about 15,000 students today, representing more than 50 percent of the state’s annual public-safety trainees.
Ridgefield Police Chief Lars N. Oyen, a 1967 academy graduate, said the school Calissi now heads is a huge improvement over the one from which he graduated.
“One of the first things that a senior officer said to me was, `Forget everything they taught you at the academy. Now, I’m going to show you how to do it,” Oyen said. “He was right. It was different. It didn’t have the scholastic value that [the academy] has today.”
On a personal level, Calissi, a Franklin Lakes resident, will continue rehabilitating his left leg, which was shattered in the Nov. 8, 1990, accident.
Returning to the academy for a meeting that day, Calissi’s van veered into the path of oncoming traffic as he avoided a vehicle turning from his lane. He collided with a utility truck coming from the opposite direction.
Along with the shattered bones, Calissi broke seven ribs and required transfusion of 15 units of blood.
He was back on the job 30 days after the accident. Although he still undergoes physical therapy and faces further surgery, doctors have told him to expect a complete recovery.
Calissi plans to continue studying toward a doctorate in public management to go with his masters of business administration degree, law degree, and certification as a public manager and financial planner.
He also will continue to teach graduate human-resource management and administrative-law courses at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; POLICE; FIREMAN; SCHOOL; OFFICIAL; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; VICTIM; MAHWAH; RON CALISSI

Caption: PHOTO – STEVE AUCHARD / THE RECORD – Ron Calissi in front of a fire simulator at the police and fire academy. He says the school aims to “professionalize the public-safety community.”

August 2, 1991

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